Bulletin Fall 2015

ST. GEORGE S

t

ST. GEORGE S

FEATURES

18 Horrible Beauty

An original play, written by two sixth-formers, honors the victims and survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda

22 Penning the Poetry of Life

New York Times reporter Kate Zernike ’86 writes about America’s most talked-about current events—but what she’s really interested in are people

34 Arctic Adventure

John Bullard ’65 has logged quite a few nautical miles—but even veteran sailors remain awestruck by the open ocean

The St. George’s Bulletin is published biannually. It’s printed on 8pt Sterling Matte Cover and 70# Sterling Matte text by Lane Press, South Burlington, Vt. Typefaces used are Antwerp, Brix Sans and Brix Slab. Please send correspondence to bulletin_editor@stgeorges.edu.

© 2015 St. George’s School

OUR MISSION In 1896, the Rev. John Byron Diman, founder of St. George’s School, wrote in his “Purposes of the School” that: “the specific objectives of St. George’s are to give its students the opportunity of developing to the fullest extent possible the particular gifts that are theirs and to encourage in them the desire to do so. Their immediate job after leaving school is to handle successfully the demands of college; later it is hoped that their lives will be ones of constructive service to the world and to God.” As we begin the 21st century, we continue to teach young women and men the value of learning and achievement, service to others and respect for the individual. We believe that these goals can best be accomplished by exposing students to a wide range of ideas and choices in the context of a rigorous curriculum and a supportive residential community. Therefore, we welcome students and teachers of various talents and backgrounds, and we encourage their dedication to a multiplicity of pursuits—intellectual, spiritual and physical—that will enable them to succeed in and contribute to a complex, changing world.

stgeorges.edu

PHOTO BY HARRY ZERNIKE

THE BULLETIN OF ST. GEORGE’S SCHOOL SUMMER / FALL 2015

BY SUZANNE MCGRADY

Here’s to hands-on

Every once in a while a word just pops out at you, begging to be explored. Sometimes it’s of the “that-would-be-a-good-name-for-a-band” variety. Other times it’s just, “What the heck does that mean?”

And so, it was with some intrigue that I came upon the word “sloyd” in a 1901 edition of the The Dragon in St. George’s Gilbert Y. Taverner Archives.

It was in an introduction written by St. George’s founder, the Rev. John Byron Diman. Diman was an engaging writer. In the earliest days of the school, especially, he wrote often to the school community and he is quoted prodigiously in what we would consider today to be “student publications,” such as the literary magazine and school newspaper. In a way that today seems strikingly authentic, he was often blunt and direct, unapologetic about his opinions and desires. “I want for one thing to see a great improvement in our athletics,” he wrote in this particular piece. And “I wish that we could treat [music] as they did in the old Greek world, not as an accomplishment, but as an essential to education. There is nothing that leads one so far in the land of beauty or that so well reveals to him the hidden possibilities of his own soul.”

When Diman referred to “Sloyd,” he was referring to “a system of manual training developed from a Swedish system and designed for training in the use of tools and materials but emphasizing training in wood carving,” according to Merriam-Webster.

“The education of the body means more than strength and activity,” Diman wrote. “It means the gradual mastery over the forces and forms of nature.

“For this reason I am very much interested in the introduction of manual training, or of some other form of mechanical work,” he added. “For the younger boys this would probably be Sloyd, but for the older ones it should

lead to the building of boats or canoes or small buildings or to anything else that ministers to use or enjoyment.”

On page 83 of this edition of the Bulletin you’ll see a photo of the Applied Mechanics Building that was built to further Diman’s aim of giving students a space to build something valuable with their own hands.

Sloyd also had another intended goal: to affect the moral character of students. It was believed that through a series of more and more complex manual projects, students would learn to master skills, build confdence, fnd workable solutions to problems and go out and use their education in the real world.

It struck me that Sloyd, which in some school systems also taught handicrafts like paper-folding and sewing, sounds a lot like the makerspace trend so popular today. Not only are locally produced goods and food all the rage, but so is a newly resurgent craft culture. And it’s inspiring to see even elementary-school-age children coming up with their own creations, truly inventing, at 3-D printing seminars at the local library.

St. George’s, too, adds a fabrication lab to its slate of student resources this year and the new Academic Center, with its plethora of technology and communal space, is sure to inspire creative thinking and collaboration.

We look forward to informing you about all the great ways that students and teachers will be using these new spaces and the solutions to real-world issues they’ll be devising.

The Rev. Diman hoped his proposal to engage the students in more hands-on work and to grow the programs of the school would help St. George’s “keep pace with outward progress.”

“Then we may feel that we are advancing along the right path and are preparing ourselves for the greatest of all pleasures and privileges, a real sharing in the wide world’s life and work,” he said.

His words echo through these same halls today.

in

PHOTO BY DAVE HANSEN

ChampSailing

SAILOR WILL LOGUE ’16 (below, left) prevailed in International 420 competition at the 2015 U.S. Youth Sailing Championships in Bristol, R.I., racing to a spectacular frstplace fnish along with his partner, Bram Brakman, from the Riverside Yacht Club in Connecticut.

The event, which took place July 11–12, is the premier youth sailing regatta in the country.

Will and his brother Matt ’18, who placed ffth in Bristol, then headed to Japan, where they both competed at the International 420 World Championships in Karatsu July 17–25. Will placed sixth in the open division and Matt was

sixth in the U-17 division. At presstime, they were heading to the 420 and 470 Junior European Championships in Bulgaria.

Will will represent the USA in Malaysia in December at the International Sailing Federation world championships and is on the U.S. sailing development team.

SG SAILOR NO. 1 AT YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP

Found Objects

A PRIZED POSSESION

An alumnus was sitting in Brother Jimmy’s bar in New York with a friend from St. George’s when a notifcation from eBay popped up on his cell phone. The alumnus, who wishes to remain anonymous, had set up an alert with the auction site to be notifed whenever “St. George’s School” was used in an item description. This time the school’s name came up when an antiques dealer in Pennsylvania posted a listing for a small silver cup with “St. George’s School” engraved on one side.

The alumnus went for it, bid on the cup — and won. Score one for the Dragons. Turns out the cup dates back to the earliest days of the school. Besides the words, “Prize Essay … St. George’s School … Newport … Dragon Competition,” it bears the inscription, “Presented by Reginald Howland to Leonard Bacon.”

Upon further research, Archivist Val Simpson determined the cup had been awarded to Bacon after the young student won an essay-writing

contest sponsored by The Dragon literary magazine back in 1901.

Bacon, St. George’s Class of 1905, must’ve shown his writing talents early: He went on to win the coveted Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his collection, “Sunderland Capture” (Harper) in 1941.

Thanks to our alumnus’ eBay alert, the cup now rests safely back on St. George’s soil in the Gilbert Y. Taverner Archives — and the story of Bacon’s frst signs of promise as a writer on the Hilltop, deservedly, comes to light.

A SPECIAL NOTE

He thought it was from a current student: a blue envelope containing a card that appeared in his mailbox on June 8. But when science teacher Tom Evans opened the envelope that day, he ended up getting a message not only from a student who knew him long ago — but from one who had died.

English teacher Patricia Lothrop had found the unopened card addressed to Evans tucked inside a book in the used bookstore this spring and placed it in his box.

“When I opened it, it was a beautiful letter with artwork just expressing thanks for a great year and how much she now loved biology and wanted to do biology,” Evans recalled. The letter was from Lucia Bobakova ’96, who was in Evans’ AP biology class in 1996.

Evans said he searched the Internet for hours trying to fnd Bobakova when he fnally came upon a photo and many publications she’d written about conservational biology in Slovakia dating between 1999–2005.

“Then I found something in Slovakian and saw ‘St. George’s School’ in one of the sentences. I had it translated and then read it,” he said.

It was Bobakova’s memorial tribute. She had died in 2011 of a long illness and left behind a husband and a son.

“Now I am trying to fnd the family in Slovakia to contact them,” Evans said. Hopefully, he added, he’ll be able to share Lucia’s letter.

“I gravitate toward the ocean for every emotion — to celebrate happiness and joy, to work out anger, to get rid of stress or wash away sadness. Even looking at the ocean from the stone wall on Clif Field soothes me. I have always loved the ocean, but becoming a surfer has created a deeper respect for it than I think most people have.”

CHAPEL TALKS

TEACHERS LEARNING

Along with learning new software, pursuing advanced degrees and crewing on Geronimo, faculty members spread far and wide across the U.S. and the world to pursue professional development opportunities this summer.

1. Neile Golding at a program for AP Spanish teachers at the MundoLengua Center in Seville, Spain.

2. Science teacher Filipe Camarotti at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., where he participated in the AP Physics 1 seminar.

3. Math teacher Sarah Young at the AP Summer Institute at St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont.

4. English teacher Patricia Lothrop, who is developing a new course in Russian literature, at Yusipov Palace (where Rasputin was assassinated) in St. Petersburg.

5. Director of the Merck-Horton Center Tom Callahan discussing our research partnership with Harvard University at an international education conference at Wellington College outside London.

6. Director of College Counseling Kelly Richards at Bates College in Maine, where she ran a program for the New England Association for College Admission Counseling called “The Rising Leaders Colloquium.”

7. Wendy Drysdale (left) and Jef Nadeau (second from right) at the National Athletic Trainers Conference in St. Louis.

8. History teacher Hannah O’Brien (left) met up with students participating in the GCIP internship program, including Olivia Vitton ’16 (right), as she was conducting historical research in Paris.

9. Dean of Academics Christopher Shaw, Associate Head of School

Katie Titus and Dean of Faculty Elizabeth Bickford attending the three-day Summer Institute at High Tech High in San Diego.

10. History and English teacher Jake Westermann in Athens conducting research for the Global Studies class, which travels to Turkey and Greece in March.

11. Kim Bullock (left) and Margaret Connor (right) have fun at a dungeon attraction with students Oasis Zhen ’17, Olivia Houston ’16 and Katie Heim ’16, who participated in the GCIP internship program in London.

12. Amy Dorrien Traisci (far right) in Madrid, where she led the GCIP internship program in Spain.

Merck-Horton supports faculty with generous grants

The Merck-Horton Center awarded nearly $20,000 this summer to promote the advancement of innovative faculty initiatives. For example, science teacher James Stevens is developing a mastery learning process for chemistry labs, biology teacher Tom Evans and chemistry teacher Sarah Matarese will develop in collaboration and co-teach a unit called “Antibiotic Resistance and Marine Microorganisms,” Art Department Chair Mike Hansel and math teacher Doug Lewis are creating a course called “Design Science,” and Science Department Chair Bob Wein and Hansel are developing a course called “Principles of Engineering.”

IMAGINE INVENT INNOVATE

A new fabrication laboratory, or FabLab, in the Drury/Grosvenor Arts Center will open to students and teachers this fall. Along with a number of smaller pieces of machinery and supplies, the makerspace will have:

n 1 large-scale 3-D printer

n 1 small-scale 3-D printer

n 2 3-D scanners

n 1 wire-bending machine

n 1 soldering station

n 1 vinyl cutter

FROM CHAPEL TALKS

All-School Read

EMERITI FACULTY:

Where They Are Now

WHO: Teachers Dan and Betsy Hollins

EMERITI FACULTY TITLES: Dan: Prince Chair in History, Assistant Headmaster, Dean of Faculty, Dean of Students, and English and History Teacher, Emeritus (2006)—Appointed 1970. Betsy: Paul T. Christie Chair and Head of the English Department, Emerita (2006)—Appointed 1980

WHERE THEY LIVE NOW: Williamsburg, Va.

FOCUS IN RETIREMENT: Travel (and Betsy is still teaching)

WHERE THEY’VE BEEN SINCE THEY RETIRED IN 2006: Alaskan Northeast Passage, Patagonia, Machu Picchu, the Galapagos, Japan, Russia, Egypt, Petra, Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Scandinavia.

WHERE THEY’RE HEADING NEXT: Spain in October, and a trek to World War I battle sites in spring 2016.

WHEN THEY’RE HOME : Betsy: “[We] spend our days reading (news junkie Dan subscribes to and reads three daily papers), fooling around with our two rescue dogs (a 90-pound mastif mixed breed and a runaway hunting hound) and taking classes with the local lifelong learning organization, the Wren Association. I am also teaching two Wren courses a year, one on poetry, one on a novel.”

SUMMING IT UP: “We organize our life from trip to next trip. We are very lucky people.”

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH: Betsy_Hollins1492@cox.net and Dan_Hollins1492@cox.net

This year’s all-school read is Kevin Brookhouser’s “The 20time Project,” in which the author — a Google Certified Teacher and director of technology at York School in Monterey, Calif. — makes the case for giving students time (approximately 20 percent of class meetings) to work independently on designing solutions for challenges facing communities beyond school boundaries.

Brookhouser has been invited to address the St. George’s community in January — just as the school launches a new pilot project called SGx, “designed to create opportunities for student and faculty engagement in deeper, more collaborative, real-world learning,” said Head of School Eric Peterson.

During two-to-three-hour blocks on Saturday mornings, SG students will work in small groups to address problems creatively, and then make a public presentation on their solution at the end of the term. It’s expected that SGx will launch formally in January 2016.

Dean of Academics Christopher Shaw told SG teachers this spring that while the St. George’s program will be unique, “The principles and philosophy underlying [20Time] parallel directly what we hope to realize through SGx.”

“Luck does not define who we are, rather it teaches us to be present. Luck teaches us that no matter how hard we try, some things may not turn out the way we want…and that we must let it be. Luck teaches us to be prepared for the worst, but to enjoy the little…things in life… [and] even through a period of bad luck, there always is a silver lining….”

JAEWOO KANG

’15 / To view videos of all Chapel Talks in their entirety please go to

stgeorges.edu/ChapelTalks

For more information on Prize Day 2015, visit stgeorges. edu/prizeday

In a beautiful, spirited ceremony—highlighted by a very memorable chapel address by Dr. Paul Farmer P’15—we sent our 88 graduates out into the world at the 117th Prize Day May 25. Twenty-one of those students graduated with exceptional records of academic achievement. They were: Joseph Burnett Asbel, Samara Rebecca Ayvazian-Hancock, Sophia Abby Barker, Jing “Ray” Gao, Elizabeth Goodwin Millar, Carter Young Morgan, Elizabeth Hale Scheibe and Amanda Grace Warren, who graduated with “high distinction”

—and Sloan Alexandra Buhse, Agnes Elizabeth Enochs, Blaise C. Foley, Serena Dewees Highley, Grace Rebecca Howe, Cynthia Janette Hyuck, Caroline Kam, Erin Marie Keating, Henry Stillman Ordway, Ji Young Park, Robert Carter Rose, Cameron Eugene Roy and Emma Louise Thompson, who graduated “with distinction.”

Among the dozens of prizes awarded, Elizabeth Millar and Lilly Scheibe each received a St. George’s Medal—the school’s highest award, given to a member or members of the sixth form who through efort, character, athletics and scholarship has best caught and expressed the ideals and spirit of St. George’s.

Scheibe, of Groton, Mass., distinguished herself academically, earning the Head of School’s Commendation for Academic Excellence every semester. Head’s commendations are given to students who receive no grade lower than an A-. Outside of the classroom, Lilly was a member of the Honor Board, head of the Women in Leadership Club and a four-year member of the choir.

She has been a standout athlete, captaining three varsity teams: soccer, squash and tennis.

Lilly heads to Yale University this fall. Co-winner of the SG Medal Elizabeth Millar, of Andover, Mass., similarly stood out in all aspects of school life.

A school prefect, she was particularly known for her kindness and compassion toward others. Along with her challenging coursework, she worked diligently on a number of community-service projects.

Millar was a two-year captain of both the cross-country and swim teams. She will attend Davidson College this fall.

/ 1 / Sloan Buhse ’15 is excited after graduating “with distinction.” / 2 / Mohammed Abdel-Maksoud ’15 gets a hug from Jonathan Lumley ’15. / 3 / Zahra Arabzada ’15 ofers a trademark smile after receiving her diploma.

CAMPUS

Prize Day 2015

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Geronimo

GETTING TO KNOW

Note: Geronimo set sail on just her second transatlantic journey (the frst was in 2000) on June 16, 2015—this time for a two-year voyage that will offer students unprecedented opportunities to learn and sail the boat throughout the Mediterranean—with stops in Italy, Spain and Greece—then south to the Canary Islands, back across the Atlantic to the Eastern Caribbean and north to Puerto Rico, then alongside the Eastern U.S. coastline, and fnally back to Rhode Island in the spring of 2017.

What the frst summer crew crossing the Atlantic found out during their 18-day journey was just how Geronimo responds to the open ocean. Here, a report from the captain on the boat—and on his St. George’s crew: School Chaplain Jeff Lewis, Riley Freeman ’16, Sam Ayvazian-Hancock ’15, Audrey Lin ’16, Chloe Li ’17 and Tristan Lewis ’17—as well as Ellery Kenyon (daughter of Lalyn Ottley Kenyon ’82) and Annabelle Choa (daughter of Greg Choa ’81):

Geronimo’s best wind for sailing in the open ocean is about 12–35 knots. With less than 12 knots of wind the swell tends to be a stronger force than the wind, causing us to pitch and roll quite a bit. More than 12 knots and Geronimo starts to move very well.

At 12 knots of breeze we can expect to do 5 knots plus of speed through the water. From a wind speed of 15 knots or more, we increase to 6.5 knots, and up to 10-plus knots of boat speed.

There is a limitation of physics that defnes the maximum speed that Geronimo can travel through the water. That is called hull speed and Geronimo’s hull speed is about 10–11 knots. As wind increases, the vessel will reach maximum efciency of sails causing forward motion on the hull through the water. If the wind increases above this level, it will adversely affect the motion and speed of the vessel. In that case we make the sail area smaller by “reefng,” or tying down a portion of the sail. The heavier the wind, the more we reef. If this is done properly, we don’t lose any speed, and in fact can even gain speed.

In heavy wind and seas, Geronimo performs quite well—and the crew relies on the safety of having an ocean-certifed vessel and a very experienced and credentialed crew. On our nearly three-week passage, our experienced student crew performed quite well and our novice crew quickly became effective and skilled mariners.

—Captain Anthony L. Arrow

ACADEMIC CENTER IS ST. GEORGE’S

TECH BOOM

“When designing our new classrooms, we looked at higher education environments for inspiration. The technology in these new spaces will allow students to familiarize themselves with what they may see in their future college classrooms.”

Director of Technology Robyn Johnson

ON A RECENT CONSTRUCTION

TOUR inside the new SG Academic Center, which will open in two phases to students this year, Director of Technology Robyn Johnson was fnally able to get a frsthand look at the results of a massive assignment:

outftting the new building with nearly $1 million worth of tech equipment.

Johnson and her team — which includes Network Manager Carleton Hennion ’94 — have spent the last two years researching, consulting

with faculty and manufacturers, testing demonstration models and shopping for the latest academiccentered technology.

Here’s a run-down of what’s inside St. George’s newest academic building:

Work continued throughout the summer in order to open the laboratory wing of St. George’s new Academic Center this fall.

• Every classroom and science lab in the SG Academic Center boasts an audiovisual system that includes an integrated short-throw projector, interactive whiteboard, ceiling tile speakers, document camera and DVD player all controlled by a technology station with touch-screen controls at a front teaching area.

• The Eno Interactive whiteboards by Steelcase throughout the classrooms will allow faculty to use an electronic Bluetooth pen that communicates with their laptops and works with any notebook application. Each board can also communicate with multiple pens, allowing for collaboration.

• The document cameras will allow faculty to display textbooks, artifacts and calculators — anything that fts below the camera. That image is then projected onto the screen for students to see. “We have been piloting this with several faculty members in Memorial Schoolhouse and they absolutely loved it — especially for math,” Johnson said.

• The Commons/Atrium holds fve fat-panel displays. Visix AxisTV controls the content displayed on these screens, which will primarily be used for signage. Content may be contributed and scheduled by faculty and staff using a web interface. Students may also contribute content that would be moderated by faculty and staff.

• When the Commons area needs to be transitioned into a meeting space, the fat-panel displays can fip into presentation mode, allowing users to connect their laptops and display content. During a presentation, microphone connections are also available, allowing the presenter to take advantage of integrated sound in that space.

• A feature-wall display in the center will show our new Lucid Energy Management Dashboard. This dashboard pulls information from meters within the new academic center that aggregate data for water, electricity, wind and geothermal. Faculty and students may also access this data anytime/anywhere from any Internet device. Our energy-

management webpage will allow them to download data for class discussion, presentations or projects.

• Wireless print stations will be available on the frst and second foors of the building for faculty and students to print for free.

• Each science lab is equipped with a Code Blue emergency phone that can be utilized in the event of a classroom emergency such as a chemical spill. By pressing a single button, students and faculty are instantly connected with emergency response personnel. An additional standalone Code Blue phone will be installed outside of the building by the front entry, the frst of its kind on our campus.

• The entire building will be ftted with 802.11ac wireless, the newest and fastest wireless available. This will be the frst building on the Hilltop to receive 10GB fber from our data center, which means users will experience an incredibly fast network. Every space in the SG Academic Center has been saturated with wireless connectivity, including the outside perimeter. Students will be able to sit outside, enjoy the weather and continue to utilize Internetdriven applications for classwork, such as our cloud-based learning management system, Canvas.

RYAN MULHERN ’91

Dragons run in our family

I can’t believe that I’ve been back at St. George’s for 15 years. It seems like yesterday that I hung up my ice skates and came back to the Hilltop as an admission oficer, coach, dorm parent and advisor. Since that day in 2000, St. George’s has been much more than just a job; it is the place that my entire family has called home. My wife and I moved here right after our honeymoon, and all three of my children have been born and raised here on campus.

My children are fortunate to have grown up with an indoor swimming pool, a feld house for rainy-day games, two hockey rinks and a library full of amazing books and movies if they ever found themselves bored.

My job as the Director of Admission changed in March when I found myself writing an acceptance letter to my 14-year-old daughter, Peyton. I didn’t feel old enough to have a child that was attending St. George’s. This was both an exciting and emotional time for me, because St. George’s was a life-changing experience for me back in 1991, and I was now going to add “current parent” to my list of responsibilities here on campus.

I’m probably most excited about the special connection that my daughter and I will have with SG. We will come at this shared experience from opposite ends of the spectrum. I was the frst member of my family to ever go away to boarding school, and Peyton has spent every moment of her life here on our seaside campus as a faculty child. She knows much better than I did what to expect and all of the opportunities that will be presented to her. During Peyton’s 14 years growing up here, she has already performed in many concerts, run in every Pie Race, painted her face for Friday Night Lights and sung at every Christmas Festival.

One thing that I want for all students who choose to attend St. George’s is for them to enjoy and make the most of their experience. I now share the anxiety of

the other 99 new sets of parents who will have children joining the SG community in the fall. Informed by my work in admission, I’m confdent that my daughter will share an experience with a diverse group of motivated students, with a wide range of talents and passions. She will be challenged by the rigorous academics, pushed to compete in athletics and encouraged to make friends from all over the world.

Now it is time for the changing of the guard. St. George’s will now be our school and my sons, Shane, 13, and, Owen, 9, possibly will follow in their sister’s footsteps and become Dragons someday. Peyton’s journey will be similar to mine because of the traditions that have endured here at St. George’s, but at the same time it will be different because the school is constantly evolving.

I am now thrilled and proud to say that Dragons run in our family.

“I was the first member of my family to ever go away to boarding school, and Peyton has spent every moment of her life here on our seaside campus as a faculty child.”

Prefects welcome a new family on Orientation day.

An original play, written by two sixth-formers, honors the victims and survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda

STORY BY SUZANNE MCGRADY // PHOTOS BY LOUIS WALKER III

Sometimes an assignment isn’t just an assignment— it’s a life-changing challenge. Such was the case with this year’s spring play at St. George’s.

WHEN SHE MOVED TO RWANDA 10 years ago, Catherine Farmer ’15 remembers looking out the window of the car and seeing prisoners in pink jumpsuits working alongside the road. It was the period of reintegration in the country: A decade after the 100-day confict that killed an estimated 800,000 people, many of those convicted of committing acts contributing to the genocide were serving out the ends of their sentences—doing manual labor in the community, like building homes for genocide survivors, schools and parks.

Today the image remains embedded in Farmer’s mind as a symbol of healing. “Even then, although there was still some tension,” she said, “there was also a communal sense of loss—and that push … that want … that everyone wanted to make Rwanda better again. They wanted to remake those ties. They wanted to forgive—and they did.”

In many ways, that sentiment was at the heart of a play Farmer wrote along with her friend Laurie Germain ’15 that was performed on the Hilltop this spring.

The two spent much of last year researching the genocide—interviewing survivors, visiting the genocide memorial and attending the Liberation Commemoration July 4, 2014, during which President Paul Kigami spoke and dozens of disabled soldiers entered the stadium in wheelchairs to a standing ovation.

For the two girls, the research, they said, was extremely humbling.

Listen to Catherine Farmer ’15 and Laurie Germain ’15 in a radio interview aired on the local National Public Radio station, WRNI, in Providence. http://ripr.org/post/aquidneck-island-studentsstage-play-about-rwandan-genocide

“That moment when [the people who had been through this] could open up and tell you about these horrible things that have happened to them … is really beautiful in a certain way,” Farmer said, “especially when you don’t realize how strong these people can be.”

“We really wanted to honor that [with this play]—and we really wanted to give thanks and appreciate the people that we’ve come in contact with.”

It was a process, they said, that changed them—and eventually their passion for the project changed St. George’s, where their play, “Behind the Hills” left many in tears and nearly all in awe.

THE EFFORT BEGAN when Sarah Ploskina, chair of the Theater Department, asked if Farmer and Germain, friends since the age of 10 when they met in Rwanda, wanted to write a play about the genocide. Ploskina, also an English teacher, had read the book “Left to Tell” by Immaculée Ilibagiza, whose family was brutally murdered and who survived the terror by hiding in a cramped bathroom for 91 days (a character in Farmer and Germain’s play, Immaculée, is based on Ilibagiza’s experiences). It struck her, she said, “as a story that was meant to be brought to life on stage.”

Ploskina knew Laurie as a talented writer and Catherine as a gifted dancer and actress.

Besides Catherine and Laurie, who also acted in the show, the cast included Jack-Henry Day ’15, Sydney Jarrett ’16, Charleen Martins Lopes ’15, Billy Reed ’15, Sarah Rezendes ’15, Anna Rittenhouse ’17 and Lexi Sinskey ’18. It was staged April 30 and May 1 for the school and May 2 for the public.

As frst-time playwrights, both Farmer and Germain said the affection they have for the Rwandan people was key to their success.

“We do have so much love and respect for the country, the people,” Germain said.

In the end, they said, they knew their play would be an artistic representation, however they wanted to be as authentic in their retelling

as possible—and include all different perspectives.

Meeting a number of genocide survivors during their research and learning more about the confict from both the Hutu and Tutsi side made them feel even more responsible for a successful outcome.

“These are real lives and real stories we’re trying to retell,” Farmer said about three weeks before the fnal shows. At that time, the two were deep in the rehearsal process, juggling class commitments and

overseeing hours-long practices after school, when the script was constantly being revised and refned.

Before the acting began, the cast would sit around in a circle to discuss the characters based on Farmer’s and Germain’s interviews and research, and to read parts of the script.

“[The actors] made connections that we didn’t even make when we were writing this,” Germain said of her fellow cast members, “so seeing them take this on as their own was kind of amazing.”

“I associate myself with a lot of diferent places because of my background, but I definitely have learned so many things from [Rwanda]. And I definitely consider myself as having a Rwandan soul.”

CATHERINE FARMER ’15

Farmer also said she was indebted to the actors: “On some level I feel like they’ve gained even more respect for Rwanda—and for us,” she said. “Because they say, ‘The fact that you were able to sit down and write this. We respect you for that. And we are willing to give our 100 percent every day to make sure that your vision is fulflled.’”

For both girls, the project gave them a sense of freedom of expression they’ve come to gravitate toward. Germain is a gifted English

student who had already completed a special project in writing and Farmer is a talented visual artist who regularly wins awards for her drawing.

“My parents always taught me to try to think outside of the box and just be as creative as possible and to see where life takes you,” said Farmer, whose father is Massachusetts-born Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of the community-based health care organization Partners in Health (PIH) and subject of Tracy Kidder’s New York Times best-selling book, “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” and whose mother is Didi Bertrand, a Haitianborn anthropologist.

When she and Germain were offered the opportunity to write the spring play, Farmer said they were excited, but also weighted with the responsibility, mostly because of their personal ties to the country: Farmer moved to Rwanda from Paris 10 years ago, when PIH frst entered the country in 2005 to help modernize a hospital in the rural district of Rwinkwavu. And Germain moved to Rwanda from South Africa when her parents, who both work for United Nations, took assignments there with Monusco and Unicef.

“I associate myself with a lot of different places because of my background, but I defnitely have learned so many things from [Rwanda],” Farmer said. “And I defnitely consider myself as having a Rwandan soul. I’m an African deep down.”

WHAT HAPPENED when the lights went down on the Madeira Hall stage during the performances of “Behind the Hills” was a testament to the playwrights’ creative vision, Ploskina’s guiding hand and the skill of a team of stage crew members and young actors—most of whom were veteran SG performers, and some who will continue acting, like Day, who intends to pursue theater at the University of Southern California. The 3-D Design class pitched in to design masks, Germain and Farmer designed the costumes using traditional Rwandan fabric, and Ploskina intermittently played a djembe—the sound of which, many noted, added to the emotional tension of the show.

“From day one these two young women pursued this project … with exceptional passion, determination, vision, creativity and energy,” Ploskina said when she honored the pair with an Areté Award, which recognizes “student work of truly exceptional creative or intellectual merit,” in May.

Many students said they had not expected to feel so moved by the show.

“I didn’t think I would leave crying,” Chloe Lee ’15 told reporter Avis Zane ’17 in an article for the Prize Day edition of The Red & White. Lee said the play reminded her of the struggles her grandmother went through in Korea when the country was occupied by Japan from 1910–1945.

In turn, the audience reaction to the play buoyed Farmer and Germain.

“Their openness to it and the fact that they were so receptive to what we were saying … that just made me so proud to be a part of this community and made me really proud to be a Dragon,” said Farmer, who is thinking about pursuing a major in architecture or global health when she enters Duke University this fall.

The hope now is for “Behind the Hills” to live on.

“I would personally love to see other schools or institutions put it on,” said Germain, who will be pursuing a global studies major at New York University. “I’d love to see different interpretations of the script and how they would put it on the stage for other people to see.”

Farmer said writing and staging “Behind the Hills” made her more empowered “to use visual and performing arts to change the world and spread a message that I think would be important for others to hear.”

It was an assignment outcome Ploskina could only have hoped for.

“I always knew that [Catherine and Laurie] would work incredibly hard and that we would all learn a lot,” she said at the Areté announcement. “Yet now, in the wake of the extraordinary moments of ‘Behind the Hills,’ it is clear that these two young women created not just a script, but a way for our entire community to experience the human condition through art.”

PENNING THE

‘Poetry Lıfe.’ of

AS A REPORTER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES, KATE ZERNIKE ’86 WRITES OFTEN ABOUT AMERICA’S MOST TALKED - ABOUT CURRENT EVENTS BUT WHAT SHE’S REALLY INTERESTED IN ARE PEOPLE

KATE ZERNIKE ’86 was at her home in Montclair, N.J., getting her two boys—Frits, 8, and Nicolaas, 6— ready for school on May 13 when a text message popped up on her cell phone. A friend was asking if she could drop off her own son at Kate’s house before the school bus arrived. There had been an accident in Philadelphia, the friend reported, and she needed to get to the hospital where another friend’s husband was to undergo emergency surgery. Then came an email from Zernike’s boss, the Metro editor at The New York Times, Wendell Jamieson. “Can I lend you to National?” he asked. Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188, on its way from Washington to New York and carrying 238 passengers, had crashed at 9:30 p.m. the night before. Zernike needed to start reporting.

STORY BY SUZANNE MCGRADY //

PHOTOS BY HENRY ZERNIKE

FTER JAMIESON called that morning, Zernike—who’s been at the Times since 2000 after working her way up through the ranks and graduating from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 1992—put the kids on the school bus, then spent the next hours captaining a reporting effort involving nearly a dozen reporters stationed in Washington, Philadelphia and New York.

“It was a matter of fnding people who had been at the scene,” she said. “And this is where the Internet has completely changed things from when I started.”

The Times, she said, had put out a note on its webpage telling survivors of the crash the paper wanted to hear their stories. The note prompted an email from one man, a restaurant owner who’d gotten off the train, gotten into an Uber and come back to New York. “So I talked to him on the phone and we had a long, good interview,” Zernike said. Meanwhile another Times editor heard the name of someone who was on the train and looked her up on Facebook. “She got in touch with another reporter who transferred her to me, so I had a long talk with her,” she said. Both interviews would help cement the story with emotional, compelling details.

Other staffers helped Zernike by contributing to a Google document that would grow throughout the day with input from various reporters throughout the metro area contributing information under a looming deadline—press releases, eyewitness testimony, visual details—anything that would help Zernike reconstruct, as vividly as possible, how an ordinary commute the night before turned into a tragedy killing eight and injuring hundreds.

The result, a story headlined “A Crazy Shake. Then Metal Tearing, and Chaos” ran on the front page the next morning.

Just another day in the life a big-city reporter.

“I feel like so much of my life is unexpected because of what I do,” Zernike said two days later at a lunch meeting around the corner from the Times’ glass- and ceramic-draped building on 8th Avenue between 40th and 41st.

When news is breaking and she gets called in to work, she said, you just switch gears. “Your mind takes off and your job takes over. You fall back on your familiar routines … trying to fgure out what’s going on, trying to get the lay of the land.”

On Sept. 11, 2001, she was working out at a gym on the Upper West Side when news of the attacks at the World Trade Center came on the television.

“The subways were all shutting down,” she said. “And I ended up walking. I think I got on at Central Park West, the B or the D line and got to work … shortly after 10 a.m.”

Knowing so many parents worked in the World Trade Center, editors sent her to an elementary school back on the Upper West Side to see what was happening there.

What she found was “parents who had literally run from lower Manhattan to their kids’ school, just so they could touch their kid and make sure they were OK.”

The next day she was sent to Boston, where one of the ill-fated fights originated, because she had just come from working at the Boston Globe 18 months earlier.

All her reporting over the next months would pay off: Zernike was a member of the Times team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory reporting “for its informed and detailed reporting, before and after the Sept. 11 attacks on America, that profled

“I feel like so much of my life is unexpected because of what I do.”

KATE ZERNIKE ’86

the global terrorism network and the threats it posed.”

ZERNIKE SAYS she was always “a writer.”

“She was a good student, unafraid of hard work, articulate in class,” recalled Department of English chair emeritus Betsy Hollins, who taught Zernike in AP English.

Zernike came to St. George’s in 1983 after attending public high school her freshman year in Bedford, N.Y., near where her family lived in Pound Ridge. The daughter of a Canadian mother—a lawyer and entrepreneur—and a Dutch father who spent his career as a physicist, Zernike was encouraged to make education a priority and to attend boarding school. At the time she was a competitive sailor who appreciated St. George’s location on the water. Also, she said of SG’s former director of admission, “I remember interviewing with Mr. (Jay) Doolittle and loving him.”

St. George’s in the 1980s was a vibrant place, said Fritz Michel, class correspondent for the Class of 1985, who has remained friends with Zernike, a year younger, throughout the years.

He said students at the time were heavy into pop culture, often staging “discos” in the Upper Student Center, and keenly aware of current events. “I remember ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ was a single that year,” he said, referring to the Top 10 song by the English ska-punk band The Specials. “We were all super up-todate on music. Everyone was into dancing. The ’80s was a really great time to be into popular culture.

“It was one of those things that kept us connected to the world.”

And Kate, he said, always “had a keen eye on what was going on around her.”

Zernike took Dan Hollins’ American Studies class (“I love the idea of literature and history and joining the two together and understanding the interactions, understanding

the cultural connections”), and Robin Rogers’ class on the Presidency (“I still love that course.”)

“I also vividly remember being in Ted Hersey’s physics class—just wonderful teaching … and incredible friends who I’m still in touch with today,” she said.

Zernike returns to campus for reunions often. In 2010, she was the recipient of St. George’s highest alumni honor, the John B. Diman Award, for her “exceptional public service contributions.”

IT’S THE MONDAY after the train derailment in Philadelphia and now Zernike is off on her next story. Today she’ll head to Camden, N.J., where President Obama will be making an appearance to laud the city’s efforts in community policing. It’s a story she’s reported on previously.

Zernike, in fact, has been covering the state of New Jersey since January 2012, when the Times, prompted by the rise in national notoriety of Governor Chris Christie, decided to reboot its coverage in the state it had pulled 10 reporters out of during the 2008 recession.

This time, though, the idea is to cover New Jersey as a national correspondent would cover it, not a local reporter. “I’m not after her to give me tons of daily stories about what happened in the Statehouse today,” Jamieson explained. “She’s there to go after big targets.”

And Christie, some might say in ways both literal and fgurative, has ft the bill.

On Sept. 9, 2013, when two of three access lanes to the George Washington Bridge were closed, causing major trafc gridlock at the mouth of the bridge in Fort Lee, N.J., Zernike had one of her frst Garden State blockbusters.

“It’s one of these too-good-tobe-true stories,” Zernike said of the so-called “bridge scandal” that would later result in federal indictments of several of Christie’s top aides. “It’s also a very New Jersey story because

trafc is so sensitive in suburban life. People spend a lot of time in their cars—so if you want to mess with people, one really good way to do it is to get them caught in trafc.”

Christie’s way of operating has indeed been a focus of much of Zernike’s recent reporting.

In January of this year, when the governor sat with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in a private suite to watch a Philadelphia Eagles game, the news didn’t sit so well with southern New Jerseyans, many of whom display a loyalty to the Eagles akin to that of a Fenway frank-eating Red Sox fan from Medford, Mass.

But while that story prompted a lot of angst on sports talk radio, Zernike took it as a clue to dig further into the governor’s “taste for expensive perks.” She and fellow reporter Michael Barbaro spent the next weeks tracking down information about a trade mission to Israel that Christie went on in 2012—one that included transportation via a private plane owned by wealthy businessman and Republican donor Sheldon Adleson, a $30,000 hotel bill paid for by the King of Jordan and champagne-soaked parties with Bono.

“In Christie’s Career, Fondness for Luxury Travel” ran on page one of the Times on Feb. 3.

Jamieson calls Zernike a “relentless, aggressive” reporter and “a wonderful writer.”

“Several of her stories really set the bar for coverage of the way [Christie] runs government,” he said. “She’s done real digging to raise some real questions about how he does business politically.”

When Christie declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president at his Livingston, N.J., high school alma mater June 30, Zernike was in the gymnasium—but she already had fled her story, which was up on the Times website earlier in the day. “These things are often anti-climactic when they happen now,” she said. “It shows how news has changed that we wanted to be out ahead of the game.”

When she was standing in the gym waiting for Christie to take to the podium, she said, a bunch of people she knew in the room were saying, “I just got an announcement from the New York Times on my phone that Chris Christie is running for president—but he hasn’t even announced yet!”

Turns out another Times reporter had gotten the news confrmed from one of Christie’s top aides and the Times decided to put out a news alert ahead of time.

It’s all about preparation, Zernike said,—and being out front. Careful, but out front.

AFTER EATING her lunch the day of our interview following the train derailment, Zernike gets up to make her way to the ladies room, but never makes it there. She’s known around here enough so that people recognize her and want to know what she thinks about things, notably Christie. She gets caught in a conversation with a couple of people a few tables down.

You can see why people gravitate toward her. She’s friendly, easy with her smile and smart.

She’s got an editorialist’s thorough explanation of Christie’s prospects. “I think a lot of people think that the governor missed his moment and he should’ve run when people were talking about it in 2011,” she says. “I think the path has gotten much more narrow. Years ago I was saying that I thought when people got close up, his popularity would fade. People would see that, as much as he can be charming, he can also be abrasive.”

And the governor’s signature achievement, pension reform, has started to fail, she added.

“Everyone was so confdent that he was going to be the next president, including him.

“Back then I wouldn’t have agreed … But now that everyone seems to be counting him out, I would also caution, don’t count him out— because he does have this amazing political skill.”

What Christie is counting on now, Zernike said, is a kind of John McCain-like comeback.

“McCain was losing, his campaign was running out of money and then he became the voice of reason on Iraq and Afghanistan and then surged on that and managed to pull off a surprise win in New Hampshire,” Zernike recounted.

In debates, she said, what Christie will be looking to do is to get off a few good lines. “He wants people to remember, oh yeah, this guy, isn’t he a moderate, isn’t he the kind of guy who could win the general election?” Plus, Zernike said, he’ll look to show off his humor.

Still though, Zernike added, “More and more I just think there are so many problems.”

Christie’s low approval rating in his own home state was the focus of Zernike’s pre-announcement article on the Times website, which also ran in the paper the next day: “One of the Toughest States for New Jersey’s Governor to Win in 2016? New Jersey.”

THESE DAYS, having established a reputation in the Times newsroom for being a talented “generalist” reporter—she’s written for every section of the paper, including sports, travel and styles—Zernike still seems jazzed she’s found her way to the top of her feld.

She’s humble, her friends say, and still fun.

“You know sometimes you go out with other people who work for newspapers and they can be pretty dry and talk about politics all the time. She’s about as far from that as anyone I know,” said Michel, who gets together periodically with Zernike and her husband, Dr. Jonathan D. Schwartz, an oncologist who works for Stemline Therapeutics, a small biotechnology company in Manhattan.

“I know plenty of insufferable journalists—and she’s not one of them.”

After the publication of her book, “Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party

America” in 2010, Zernike was invited to speak at a lunch at the annual meeting of the Sulzberger family, owners of the Times.

“I remember being at the lunch table and one of the Sulzberger family members talking about sitting on her grandmother’s knee, and her grandmother discussing journalism,” she said.

“Their grandmother really did impart to them that this is a sacred trust, that journalism is a sacred trust and this is what their family did— and you really did get a sense of ‘oh my god,’ just that incredible tradition and responsibility.”

With the proliferation of online media, Zernike said, news standards have changed. “The Times is no longer as vaunted as it once was,” she admitted. “Certainly in the era of Fox we’ve been pigeonholed as this great Liberal [paper], which I don’t think we are—but that’s a whole other discussion.”

Still, she offered: “As I look at the fourishing of new media—certainly there’s a lot of good reporting out there, but there’s a lot of sloppiness— and that’s when I think the values of the Times are really important.”

ZERNIKE DISCOVERED her passion for the feld as a student at the University of Toronto, where she majored in English and history.

After a few years, she said, “I had what I’m sure a lot of college kids have which is this crisis: ‘Oh my god. The end is near. What am I going to do with my life?!’”

A friend of her parents told her she should write for her student newspaper.

She wrote a few articles, she said, and was almost instantly “hooked.” The next year she served as editorin-chief and was soon off to graduate school at Columbia.

“When I was at Columbia, I had a professor … I remember he talked about doing this national story and being in New York when the national story broke. … I remember him

describing it and thinking—that’s the most excitement you could have about your work and just wanting so badly to be a national reporter, and a national reporter for The New York Times.”

After Columbia, Zernike took an internship at the Quincy (Mass.) Patriot-Ledger, parlayed that into a job covering education at The Boston Globe, and soon caught the eye of Ethan Bronner, a former Globe staffer who became an editor at the Times, with some attention-getting stories the Times wished they’d had. (One notable one was about discrimination against female faculty members at M.I.T.)

“And so then I got this job … and it really was this passport: You get a plane ticket and a notebook and you can go ask anyone any questions you want.”

Recalling a story that once took her to Grand Forks, N.D., in February, she said, “I loved it. Life is such a crazy human book and I love bringing that (to life).”

She had gone out there to interview a couple of guys who were doing a fshing podcast from one of their mothers’ basements, gotten a tip on a whole other story about the North Dakota legislature pondering a bill to eliminate “power hour” (when people turn 21 at midnight and have one hour to do 21 shots before the bars close), and turned it into one of her own life’s most memorable reporting experiences. (She still has a book of photographs by Leo Kim given to her by the mayor of Grand Forks.)

“A lot of people in journalism got into it because they had a real passion for foreign affairs … or they really want to write about welfare, something like that.

“All that interests me,” she said. “But what got me into this was the sense of wanting to connect with people—to translate for other people the everyday poetry of life.”

my

TRAVEL GUIDES TO CITIES AROUND THE WORLD

Hometown

When students come to St. George’s, they meet friends from all over the country and the world —making the Hilltop a truly vibrant place to live and learn. So what better place to collect some travel tips? We tapped into a few of the diverse cultural backgrounds of our student body—whose hometowns range from communities in the Deep South of the U.S. to urban centers in Asia—to gather some insider secrets for our own next adventures ...

Best place to see live music: Memorial Union Terrace [3] has a beautiful outdoor terrace right on the water where musicians come to play every weekend and some weekdays in the summer. When you’re there you have to get Babcock Ice Cream—ice cream made fresh in Madison. My personal favorite is orange custard chocolate chip—a Madison original. Don’t knock it ’til you try it.

Places I like to shop: State Street or Hilldale. State Street is in the heart of downtown and lined with local restaurants and all types of shopping, both chain stores and local shops. My personal favorite is a shoe store called Madison Sole. Hilldale is an indoor and outdoor shopping mall with a bunch of great stores and restaurants.

Best souvenir to take home: Badger apparel or a cheese head

Best breakfast/brunch: Manna Cafe for a coffee, sticky bun (their specialty and my absolute favorite), and the Spinach Swirl Egg Scramble. It’s located about 10 minutes east of downtown and a two-minute walk from my house.

Place to get a coffee/tea and a pastry: Colectivo Coffee [1] located in downtown Madison. It has huge glass garage doors that open in the summer, totally a neighborhood vibe. Everyone from business executives to high school students on their lunch breaks comes here; everyone knows each other. And the baristas know their regulars.

Place for a celebration, and I get to choose: Johnny Delmonicos—the best steak place in Madison, one block down from the Capitol Square. It’s definitely on the more formal side of restaurants for Madison; I love the quiet atmosphere and the amazing food. My go-to meal? Asian fried calamari, petite tenderloin, with mac and cheese on the side. I have to

admit, I made my parents take me there on my 18th birthday.

Best place for a walk/hike/or just to view the scenery: Lakeshore Path [4]. It runs all along the campus [of the University of Wisconsin] along Lake Mendota. It lines almost the entire outer edge of campus and has a beautiful nature path for bikers, walkers and runners. You get to admire the lake and all the activity on the lake but also get a glimpse of the UW-Madison campus.

“Hotspot” for teenagers: State Street [2], a street right downtown where all of the college students hang out. No cars can drive down it and there are lots of restaurants and shops. It’s beautiful in the summertime and you’re about a three-minute walk to the lakefront.

Best museum/art gallery: Chazen Museum of Art, located right downtown in the heart of the city. It’s part of the University of WisconsinMadison campus and owned by the university.

Two words I’d use to describe my hometown: Eclectic and friendly.

Great place to stay: Edgewater. It’s a beautiful hotel right on Lake Mendota that has an incredible restaurant and spa. Another plus: You have a great view of the stunning capitol building and the lake.

I know I’m home when: I see the Packers and Badger gear emerge. There is so much pride for sports teams.

If you want to act like a local and not a tourist: Dress casually and drink beer.

If you come here, before you leave you HAVE to: Go to the farmers’ market! It’s a must when you come to Madison, especially in the summer. It’s the largest producer-only farmers’ market in the country with hundreds and hundreds of vendors that set up shop around Capitol Square every Saturday morning. You can get everything from local grown produce, baked goods, local cheese (a must) and flowers. My favorite stand is the Hooks Cheese Stand. The best cheese ever.

“We need different perspectives and experiences to understand ourselves as well as others. That is what I love about going to St. George’s. I think it is amazing that we have so many people from so many different backgrounds because we can learn

FACT:

For the school year 2015–16, ST. GEORGE’S ENROLLED

100 NEW STUDENTS from 18 states and seven countries, including Russia, Mexico, Korea and China.

so much.”

ELIZABETH MILLAR ’15

TRAVEL TIP: IN EGYPT, MOST OF THE BANKS ARE OPEN FROM SUNDAY TO THURSDAY, THOUGH BANKS AT THE AIRPORTS AND THE MAJOR ENTRY PORTS ARE OPEN 24 HOURS A DAY. Source: Ask-Alladin.com

MOUDY ABDEL - MAKSOUD ’15

Cairo, Egypt

Best place for breakfast: Leftbank

It’s an open-air restaurant by the Nile. Honestly everything is good there, whether it is Egyptian oriental food or a regular breakfast.

Best place for a coffee/tea and a pastry: Head to Elkorba, two long streets that have many coffee shops and pastry stores. It’s a really good place to go for brunch, too. You can walk around under the warm sun and you will find everything you need—all kind of foods. Moreover, they have the korba festivals, where people play music, and it’s a happy atmosphere.

Place I would like my family to take me to celebrate my birthday: Le Pacha, a stationary boat on the Nile that has some really nice restaurants and nightclubs.

Best places for a walk: A town called Zamalek in the morning, or you can go to one of the private clubs and walk there. The clubs are very big, maybe bigger than our campus. Clubs like Heliopolis clubs and Gezira Club are the best ones in Cairo.

A great hike: Drive a couple hours into the desert and by the Red Sea we have some awesome mountains where people go for safaris—and camping by the water is beautiful.

To see the scenery: Alazhar Park [5] or the Cairo Tower [7], which is the highest summit in Cairo. From there you can see metropolitan Cairo, and at night you can see the lights of the city.

“Hotspot” for teenagers: City Stars, which is a mall that has a movie theater and every possible store and many restaurants. It has seven floors.

CHRISTINA MALIN ’15

Best museum: The Egyptian Museum [8] is one of the most famous museums in the world. They have all the ancient Egyptian statues and mummies there.

FUN FACT: Tutankhamun’s desk mask can be found in Room 3 on the upper floor of the Egyptian Museum.

Best place to see live music: Saayet el sawi is a place for concerts and poetry. And sometime we have concerts by the pyramids [6], which is very cool.

Best souvenir: A papyrus with your name and a pharaonic drawing on it.

Way I’d describe my hometown: Despite all that has been going on, I still believe that Cairo is one of the safest places in the world. The people are so kind and welcoming.

Place I would recommend for visitors to stay: The Marriot in Zamalek by the Nile is beautiful. Before it became a hotel it was the king’s palace.

When I get off the plane/train home, the first thing I want to do is: Eat my mom’s homemade food!

I know I am home when: It is 2 a.m. and everyone is still awake in the streets and I am chilling at a local coffee shop with my friends.

If you want to act like a local: Go sit in one of the local coffee shops in the streets and smoke shisha (hookah), eat Egyptian food and stay up late!

If you come here, you HAVE to: Visit the pyramids [6], take a Nile cruise and go to the Red Sea for some scuba diving.

New York City

Best place for brunch: EJ’s Luncheonette. If you try to go on a Sunday morning, the line is out the door. Every time I go I order a chocolate milkshake and usually a chocolate chip waffle.

If I could celebrate my birthday anywhere in the city, it would be at: Buddakan. The restaurant is huge, but very modern and has the best scallion pancakes.

My favorite place to walk is: The promenade along the East River [9]

My old school was right on East End Avenue, so we were able to have recess and go on runs on the promenade.

“Hotspot” for teenagers: Definitely the Great Lawn [14] in Central Park. When it starts getting warm out, kids always grab something to eat and

walk over to the Great Lawn to hang out after school.

Best museum: The Natural History Museum [10] is my favorite. I’ve been there so many times, but I always find something new and interesting to look at.

Best place to see live music: Central Park [14]. In the summer there are always concerts that are so nice to watch outside. And of course, Madison Square Garden is also very fun.

Places I like to shop: Everywhere.

Two words I’d use to describe New York: Loud and energetic.

Place to stay: The Standard Hotel. It has amazing views of the water, the city and is right above the High Line.

BING NAWBHANICH ’15

Bangkok, Thailand

Best place for breakfast/brunch: Tribeca Restobar in Thonglor 13, Bangkok. When I am there, I always get the carbonara pasta and buttermilk pancakes with bananas. Adults love to go there because they have all-you-can-drink champagne.

Place to get a coffee/tea and a pastry: Mousses & Meringues. They are very well known for meringues cakes. My favorite is the chocolate meringue cake. They have many branches throughout the city. The shop is relatively small, but decorated in a very grand style. I recommend those who want to visit the shop to go early in the morning because they sell out of all of their cakes pretty quickly.

Best place for a walk/hike/or just to view the scenery: Lumphini Park [12] It is a great place to get away from all your stress.

“Hotspot” for teenagers is: Paragon Mall in the middle of the city. It is one of the biggest malls in South East Asia.

Best museum/art gallery: The best museum is Bangkok Art and Culture Centre [11] on the Rama 1 Road. My favorite art gallery would be Hof Art on Sukhumvit Road. They have the mixture of artwork from young and very famous artists in Thailand.

Best place to see live music: Impact Arena is the best place to see live music. All of the famous artists and shows play and perform there.

Place I like to shop: Central World is the mall everybody goes to shop.

Best souvenir to take home: The traditional Thai silk tie (for men) or scarf (for women).

Two words to describe my hometown: Busy and unique.

Stay at this hotel if you’re coming here: Siam Kempinski—because it is right in the middle of the city and has the sky train right next to the hotel so it is easier for visitors to travel around the city.

I know I’m home when I: Eat the original Pad Thai from the most famous Pad Thai restaurants in Bangkok (which only cost about $1 per dish).

If you come here, before you leave you HAVE to: Visit the temple and the Grand Palace [13]

FUN FACT: Maroon 5’s “World Tour 2015” stops at Bangkok’s Impact Arena Sept. 23.

The first thing I always want to do when I get home is: Have a meal with my family. Out of the many amazing restaurants in New York, I’d choose my mom’s cooking over them any day.

If you want to act like a local: Avoid Times Square [15]!

“Out of the many amazing restaurants in New York, I’d choose my mom’s cooking over them any day.”

CHRISTINA MALIN ’15

TRAVEL TIP: EAT THE ORIGINAL PAD THAI FROM THE MOST FAMOUS PAD THAI RESTAURANTS IN BANGKOK. WHICH ONLY COST ABOUT $1 PER DISH.

NO YOUTUBE. SAVE YOUR PHOTOS AND VIDEOS TO SHARE WHEN YOU GET HOME BECAUSE YOU’RE GOING TO WANT TO SHARE A LOT.

Shanghai, China

Best place for breakfast/brunch: Just visit one of the many marketplaces. There’s one right under my apartment. Baozi are buns with stuffing inside. They have meat ones that are so good. Chinese people don’t just eat scrambled eggs. And we have fresh soybean milk called Dou Jiang They soak the beans and then grind them. It’s really good when you add sugar or honey. I also love Yiu Tiao, it’s like fried dough, but salty.

Place to get a coffee/tea and a pastry: We don’t really drink coffee in China. We love tea and the best place to have tea is home. Or you can go to a tea pavilion. They are decorated so they look like they could be hundreds of years old. Fancy furniture. We love green and black tea. The best kind would be Jin Jun Mei tea. That’s the best black tea. And never milk or sugar!

Place I ask my family to take me to celebrate my birthday: Sometimes I go to a very fancy Western restaurant, like a steakhouse, or sometimes a fancy Chinese restaurant, such as Tang Dynasty. There are five of them. The best one is in Lu Jia Zui in the Pu Dong district, east of the river. Then I would celebrate later at home and play cards or go to a karaoke bar.

Best place to view the scenery: Go to Shanghai Tower [17]. After its completion, it will be the second-tallest building in the world. There are three extremely tall buildings in the city. It’s so beautiful, especially at night.

“Hotspot” for teenagers is: A karaoke place. It’s very different than in the U.S. That is not karaoke! That’s singing at home! That’s like singing in the shower. You go to a big place. You select the room size: large or a suite … they’re really big. You get microphones and the rooms all set the mood. You feel like you’re a star. They have touch screens to order any song you want. And when you’re hungry you can go eat right in the place.

Best museum: Shanghai Science and Technology Museum [16]. It has four floors; it’s huge. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) happened there in 2001. Each pavilion has a different theme. I like the earth one. You’d need a week to explore the whole place. I used to have an annual pass. And there are four big theaters and some are interactive. I still go there. You can play chess with a robot. You can design your own building. You can even get a 3-D sculpture of your head.

Best place to see live music: The big concerts are in the sports stadiums, like the Shanghai Mercedes-Benz Arena. Someone like J J Lin would play there. I really like him. Or Taylor Swift.

Place I like to shop: Zheng Da Guang Chang has eight floors. It was Asia’s biggest shopping mall for a while. It has a cinema, a floor for an arcade and the rest is shopping and food.

Best souvenir to take home: Good tea. And just experience the culture.

Stay at this hotel if you’re coming here: J.W. Marriott at Tomorrow Square. Also, the Four Seasons in the Financial District is beautiful and the Marriott in the Jin Mao Tower.

When I get off the plane/train home, the first thing I want to do is: Play cards and mahjong with my family and friends.

I know I’m home when I: Smell good Chinese food.

If you want to act like a local and not a tourist: Bargain! You have to learn how to bargain. Say “Tai gui le (too expensive)!” And then you just leave and they will chase you.

If you come here, before you leave you HAVE to: Watch the nighttime scene on The Bund or Waitan. If you look from the east side to the west side, you see tradition, the older buildings. If you look from the west side to east side, you see the future. It’s very colorful.

Makati City, Philippines

The best place for breakfast/brunch is: Pancake House, which is the Filipino version of IHOP. I normally get a golden brown waffle or the Bolognese pasta.

Place to get a coffee/tea and a pastry: Starbucks for coffee, but for a pastry it’s a place called Goldilocks Padala

Place I like to go to for my birthday: Our farm in Calatagan with my family and cousins—because we get to motorcycle around the beautiful Batangas and relax by the pool.

Best place for a walk just to view the scenery: The beaches in Palawan [18] You cannot go to the Philippines without visiting at least one of the beautiful beaches.

“Hotspot” for teenagers: The Fort Strip or Bonifacio High Street, a shopping mall in metro Manila.

Best museum: The Mind Museum

Best place to see live music: The Areneta Coliseum

I like to shop: In Bonifacio High Street or Rockwell

Two words I’d use to describe my hometown: Tropical and beautiful.

When I get off the plane home, the first thing I want to do is: Hug my little siblings and play with my dogs.

If you want to act like a local and not a tourist: Learn simple Tagalog phrases like “Kumusta ka?” which means, “How are you?” and “Pare” which is like “friend/pal.”

Before you leave you HAVE to: Try Adobo and Sinigang. They are the yummiest Filipino dishes!

RAY GAO ’15

TRAVEL TIP: THERE IS A FIREWALL IN CHINA, SO THERE’S NO FACEBOOK, NO INSTAGRAM, NO TWITTER,

NATASHA ZOBEL DE AYALA ’15

Shreveport, Louisiana

Best place for breakfast/brunch: Another Broken Egg Cafe. I always order beignets and Eggs Benedict.

Place to get a coffee/tea and a pastry: We have a nice Starbucks with lots of tables and benches to sit outside. There is a girl named Cherry who works there and who knows my order because I go every day while I’m home on breaks.

Best place to view the scenery: My dad and I go biking almost every day on the trails by the river.

“Hotspot” for teenagers: There’s a cute park called Betty Virginia where people go to have picnics and walk their dogs.

Place I would like my family to take me to celebrate my birthday if I were there: I love having a lot of people come to my house and my dad will cook TONS of fried chicken!

Best museum/art gallery: The Norton Art Gallery or Marlene Yu collection downtown.

EMMA THOMPSON ’15

Washington, D.C.

Best breakfast/brunch: Market Lunch (inside Eastern Market) is my absolute favorite brunch location for fluffy pancakes. Fighting for a barstool is half of the fun. Le Diplomate is a nicer option for brunch-crazed Washingtonians.

Place to get a coffee/tea and a pastry: FireHook has amazing pastries and is cozy in any season. While the dozens of Starbucks in the city can be crazed and crowded, FireHook never feels rushed.

Place I ask my family to take me to celebrate my birthday: : Chez Billy is a restaurant in my neighborhood that serves Belgian cuisine that everyone (from my mother to my 12-year-old brother) loves. The Inn at Little Washington is out of town, but also out-of-this-world delicious.

Best place to view the scenery: Rock Creek Park [21] has great trails in the heart of the city (you will have no idea you’re in DC!) and the Air Force Memorial [20] has one of the most stunning views of the city, especially at night.

“Hotspot” for teenagers is: Georgetown [22] is home to not only a university but a couple high schools, so most kids gravitate to the shopping, restaurants and movie theater there.

Best museum/art gallery: For more classic paintings, the National Portrait Gallery is a must see. The Phillips Collection is more intimate with really unique exhibits. The Newseum is fascinating on all levels, with lots of

interactive exhibits like “record your own news report” and files of newspapers from every year in American history.

Best place to see live music: The 9:30 Club for rock and pop (a DC institution), the Birchmire for folk and country, and the Mall to hear the military band on summer nights.

Place I like to shop: Georgetown has any store you could think of in a concise area; Eastern Market has a diverse flea market on the weekends.

Best souvenir to take home: A White House Christmas ornament or any of the other quirky items from the Smithsonian museum shops.

Two words to describe my hometown: Diverse and cultured.

Stay at this hotel if you’re coming here: Tabard Inn or the Hay Adams

When I get off the plane/train home, the first thing I want to do is: Go to 2Amys for real Neapolitan pizza. It is even certified by the city of Naples!

I know I’m home when I: Am in traffic on the Beltway.

If you want to act like a local and not a tourist: Stand on the right, walk on the left on escalators and stairs. This is rule No. 1 of living in D.C. Also, don’t go on the White House [19] tour.

If you come here, before you leave you HAVE to: See the monuments at night.

Place I like to shop: We have lots of cute boutiques, but Goodwill just might be my favorite place to shop. I got a wonderful 80s windbreaker there for $5 (what a steal!). Everyone tells me it’s pretty ugly, but that doesn’t stop me from wearing it!

Two words to describe my hometown: Hot (it is Louisiana) and very Southern.

My parents (or I) tell people to stay at this hotel if they’re coming here: We usually just tell people to stay at our house. The more the merrier!

When I get off the plane/train home, the first thing I want to do is: See my

family and my two dogs (Crash is a blind puppy who only runs in circles and Lulu is fat and grumpy, but still very cute).

I know I’m home when I: Go to the grocery store and all the cashiers call me “baby girl” or “honey child.”

If you want to act like a local and not a tourist: Go to the Robinson Film Center for chicken and waffles.

If you come here, before you leave you HAVE to: Come to my house and eat fried chicken!

AGNES ENOCHS ’15

TRAVEL TIP: EASTERN MARKET IS CLOSED ON MONDAYS.

John Bullard ’65 has logged quite a few nautical miles — but even veteran sailors remain awestruck by the open ocean

ARCTIC A D V E N T U R E

STORY BY SUZANNE MCGRADY // PHOTO BY NED CABOT

YOU MIGHT CALL HIM A SAILOR’S SAILOR.

As a regional administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, John Bullard ’65 spends his days helping to make sure the ocean stays healthy for all of us. That means he’s often talking to the men and women who ply their trade on the water—people, he says, with whom he speaks a common language.

“The ocean is just an amazing place. It teaches you an awful lot. It’s spiritual. It’s my church,” said Bullard, who grew up in New Bedford, Mass., sailing his parents’ Beetle Cat in Buzzards Bay.

“That’s one of the reasons I like the job I have now is that fshermen, who do that for a living, know exactly what I’m talking about.”

For Bullard, sailing into the barren beauty of the Arctic in 2007 was a particularly memorable and moving event—not only for the incredible scenery and adventure, but also for the place it holds within his heart.

Bullard made the trip aboard Cielita, a semi-custom J/46 owned by his good friend, Dr. Edmund B. “Ned” Cabot, a retired surgeon and noted Boston philanthropist.

Years after the voyage with Bullard, on Sept. 1, 2012, Cabot would be lost at sea, swept off the deck of Cielita by a rogue wave as the boat traveled near St. George’s Bay, Newfoundland. It was the last leg of a voyage Cabot had begun in 2005 and planned to complete over the course of seven summers— including that spent with Bullard fve years before.

Cabot was the chair of the board of trustees at Sea Education Association, a Woods Hole, Mass., educational institution that offers 12-week semester-at-sea programs to college students, and where Bullard was president from 2002-2012.

“There was no person I’d rather sail to uncharted waters with than Ned Cabot,” Bullard said. “He was a frst-rate seaman, storyteller, musician, fxer-upper (bodies and ships) and friend. He loved northern waters— and they didn’t want to let him go.”

Bullard’s trip with Cabot and friends began in the Shetland Islands north of Scotland. In terms of latitude, that’s about 60 degrees north.

The group sailed Cielita over to the Lofoten Islands on the northwest coast of Norway, and then kept sailing north to Svalbard, the archipelago in the Arctic Ocean about midway between continental Norway and the North Pole.

Cielita was at about 79 degrees, 30 minutes when, Bullard said, the crew could no longer see the islands. “At that point, we said, well jeepers, you can’t get that close and [turn around]—so we just kept sailing another 30-35 miles so we could say we got north of 80 degrees,” Bullard recalled.

There was ice all around, but none of the crew could even see the pack. “That’s the power of the Gulf Stream,” which goes up the west coast of Svalbard. “It’s also the power of global warming,” Bullard added.

All around them a mostly barren landscape emerged. It was as if they had entered a black-and-white world. “It’s very monochromatic and very silvery,” Bullard said. “Beautiful silvery. The sun never gets within 15 degrees of the horizon so it’s 24-hours of beautiful daylight,” he said.

What emerged in the distance were ice and clouds and occasionally little spots of blue sky and dark grey dirt. That, and wildlife: Sea lions and polar bears and “millions and millions of birds.”

The soundtrack of the trip were the echoing calls ptarmigans, fulmars, skuas and guillemots.

And though vegetation was nearly absent from the landscape, Bullard said, that when the crew would set down and pull up the anchor, they would see evidence of a rich kelp forest below the ocean’s surface. “It was a very complex, rich ecosystem under the water,” he said.

The trip was a bonding experience with friends, out on an adventure, virtually alone in the Arctic. “We only saw one or two boats in all the time we were up there,” Bullard said.

It was yet another time, Bullard said, when sailing changed his outlook on life.

“Especially when you’re able to be out there, out on the open ocean for more than a few days … when you get to let that horizontal line soak in for a while.” He paused. “It affects you.”

“The ocean is just an amazing place. It teaches you an awful lot. It’s spiritual. It’s my church.”

The John B. Diman Award

“Mr. Bullard’s distinguished career as a senior administrator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a longtime champion of fishermen and the health of the oceans, as well as his public service to his hometown of New Bedford, Mass., make him the unanimous choice of the trustees and an exemplary candidate for the Diman Award.”

John K. Bullard ’65 was the recipient of St. George’s highest alumni honor, the John B. Diman Award, on May 8, in the chapel.

The Diman Award is presented annually “to an alumna or alumnus whose personal accomplishments or public-service contributions are greatly valued by St. George’s School.”

Currently the regional administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Regional Ofce, Bullard is responsible for administering NOAA programs for the management of living marine resources from Canada to Cape Hatteras. He previously served as president of the Massachusetts-based Sea Education Association, a member of the Clinton administration where he led NOAA’s frst federal Ofce of Sustainable Development and Intergovernmental Affairs, and the mayor of his hometown, New Bedford, Mass.

In his Diman Award acceptance speech, Bullard regaled current students with stories of his treasured days in the 1960s on the Hilltop and then switched gears, urging them to take action against climate change, which he called “a calamity.”

Bullard remembers his time as a student at St. George’s fondly, particularly because of the relationships he had with teachers and the inspiration they gave him to pursue his passions. He recalled studying architecture with chair of the Art Department emeritus Richard Grosvenor, physics with chair of the Science Department emeritus Ted Hersey, chemistry with Lawrence Goldthwait and English with Richard Friedlander, who he said was “a great teacher and a friend.”

“I know all of their good teachings infuenced me,” Bullard said. “The academics and the good teachers were infuential.” Also, he added as dozens of his classmates looked on during his speech, “The friends I made, I’ve maintained.”

—from the presentation of the John B. Diman Award to John K. Bullard ’65

Above (clockwise from top): Bergey bits; walruses; old whale bones; polar bears. “There are 5,000 polar bears in Svalbard; only 3,500 humans,” Bullard said. “You are not allowed on land without a rifle because you are definitely not at the top of the food chain.” Below: Dr. Bob Quinlan, Dr. Ned Cabot and John Bullard ’65 sailed the J-46 Cielita with Dr. Charlie Welch from the Shetland Islands at latitude 60 degrees northeast to the Lofoten Islands on the northwest coast of Norway then to Svalbard and up past 80 degrees north, within 600 miles of the north pole in 2007. Tragically Ned Cabot was lost at sea from his beloved Cielita in 2012.

PHOTOS BY LAURIE BULLARD, JOHN BULLARD AND CHARLIE WELCH

The weekend isn’t just for reunion classes. If you’re an alum*, you’re invited—every year. FEED YOUR INNER DRAGON. COME BACK TO THE HILLTOP.

MAY 6 - 8, 2016

www.stgeorges.edu/alumniweekend

eA master woodworker, Jay McLauchlan ’50 designs and builds sculptures, furniture and staircases at his studio in Gloucester, Mass. See p. 46.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JASON GROW

Full Circle

Alumni find varied and valuable ways to give back to St. George’s

VICTORIA BOATWRIGHT ’17 was sitting in the front row of her Modern World History class on May 26 when her instructor began peppering her with questions about the Affordable Health Care Act – only this time it wasn’t her usual teacher, faculty member Cassie Rudden. Dr. John Holder ’79, a professor of political science at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and a member of St. George’s recently formed Alumni Board of Visitors, had returned to campus to bring his expertise on the subject into the classrooms where he once sat as a student. He taught two classes that day, engaging students in a number of discussions about real-world issues currently in the news.

It was just another way an SG alumnus found an opportunity to give back to the school this spring.

On March 27, Lee Fentress ’96—former captain of the varsity basketball team—gave a Brown Bag Lunch Series talk to a crowd of current students about entrepreneurship and the process of creating new business ideas, including his latest startup venture, Pledgeling.

Fentress, once a member of the advance staff for candidate-then-President Barack Obama, told students he hopes the easy interface and social tools of Pledgeling, an app that allows users to make charitable gifts via one platform, will make it a hit. Entrepreneurial-minded students, in particular, took note of Fentress’ experiences and advice and many noted that it was cool to see Pledgeling and Fentress featured in a New York Times article on charitable giving in May.

And Fentress’ talk was just one of several Brown Bags that brought alumni back to campus. On April 16, Jay Edwards ’76 spoke about his efforts as a Rhode Island legislator to address the issue of ocean acidifcation and its effects on our regional economy. On April 17, Dr. Rick Beinecke ’67 spoke about addressing the mental health needs of victims and responders to the Boston Marathon bombings. At our fnal Brown Bag Lunch of the year in June, Dr. Giuseppe Cicero ’08, a dentist in Italy and visiting scholar at New York University, shared his stem-cell research with biology students.

More alumni came back for other special events.

In May, the annual Dent Lecture was delivered by Tucker Carlson ’87, P’15, P’18. Carlson, editor-in-chief of the political news website The Daily Caller and a co-host

of “Fox and Friends Weekend,” gave a humor-tinged talk to a rapt audience about the role of the media in politics.

The Grosvenor family—including former head of the Art Department Richard Grosvenor and his children, John Grosvenor ’70, Rick Grosvenor ’69 and Holly Grosvenor ’75—brought their exhibit of St. George’sand Newport-themed plein-air paintings, “The Art of Family Gatherings,” to the Hunter Gallery in April and May.

A number of alumni also hosted receptions—many in their own homes—that brought old Dragon friends and parents together again. Aurelia Drackett Demark ’01, who even as a student often took photos for the Communications Ofce, hosted a gathering at her home in New York on June 3; trustee April Anderson ’86 hosted a reception in Atlanta on April 22; Bear Dyke ’87 hosted a reception in Charleston, S.C., on April 21; and Carlson and his wife, Susie ’87, also a St. George’s trustee, hosted an SG event in their Washington, D.C., home on April 14.

Other Dragons found less conventional—yet nonetheless valuable—ways to give back to the Hilltop. Jeremiah Jones ’70, a former teacher at Pomfret School and former manager of the Antiques Marketplace in Putnam, Conn., offered up his silver-polishing skills to shine up the trophies on display in the Main Common Room in Old School as well as the trophies displayed in the Sturtevant Lobby of the Dorrance Field House. And Robert Stevenson ’03, who runs an aerial photography and cinematography company called Circumvolo, took the time to send us some stunning photos (which we featured on our Facebook page) of Geronimo docked in Harbour Island, Bahamas, when he came upon the boat during a vacation in March.

The Advancement Ofce is always eager to have more alumni circle back, keep in touch and share their talents. Said Director of Alumni Relations Bill Douglas: “St. George’s values alumni participation of all kinds—and there are certainly many ways for Dragons to support and contribute to the SG experience.”

The season, in fact, was filled with calendar highlights, courtesy of those who formerly trolled the campus in class dress—or a Dragon athletic uniform.

Tucker Carlson ’87 greets Serena Highley ’15 after the Annual Dent Lecture in May.

ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

“Modern Family” actress Julie Bowen ’87 is among nine celebrities helping Visit Baltimore, the city’s tourism agency, tout the virtues of their hometown in a multiyear ad campaign unveiled this spring. Bowen was born in Baltimore and spent her childhood exploring the city’s unique neighborhoods along with her parents John and Suzanne, and siblings Annie Luetkemeyer and Molly Luetkemeyer ’85. In the ads, which are currently running in a variety of media—from full-page ads in the New York Times to magazine to radio spots on Pandora—Bowen says she wants her three sons to experience the same joys.

Benefactor magazine, the quarterly newsletter of Newport Hospital, published a story this June after treating Justin Cerenzia ’01, now chair of the History Department at St. George’s. Justin, who was hit in the head by an errant puck while coaching the boys’ varsity hockey team in December, was treated both in Providence and at the Newport Hospital by a number of medical professionals, including fellow Dragon Dr. Ben Hodgson ’98. Justin’s now fully recovered—and the father of a new baby boy born not long after the accident.

Sam Alofsin ’14, Julia Carrellas ’11, Charlotte O’Halloran ’14 and Oona Pritchard ’13 were featured in an article in the Newport Daily News about local collegiate athletes making a diference on their teams during the spring season. Alofsin plays baseball at Swarthmore and Carrellas, O’Halloran and Pritchard play lacrosse at Brown, Babson and Claremont-McKenna, respectively.

Jim “Bear” Dyke Jr. ’87 received more than 140 comments on his May 20 editorial in the Wall Street Journal titled, “The Wine-Dark Sea of Regulation.” The column tells the story of how Dyke, president of Mira Winery in Napa Valley, Calif., submerged eight cases of Cabernet Sauvignon in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina to see whether cold water and tides expedite the aging process—and how the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau swept in saying that the wine would be “unfit for human consumption.” Recently, Dyke claims, the ATTTB has even threatened to revoke Mira’s winemaking license. One commenter noted: “I guess fish, lobsters and oysters are adulterated and unfit for consumption because they are stored in the ocean.”

Architect John Grosvenor ’70, P’00, ’02, ’06 was presented with a Preservation Society of Newport County Laurel Award for Artisanship by fellow Dragon and PSNC trustee William Wood Prince ’60 at the society’s June 11 annual

meeting at The Breakers. Grosvenor, one of the founders of and a partner at Northeast Collaborative Architects in Newport, is widely recognized in the field for his expertise in preservation and for sensitively working within historical contexts. St. George’s reaped the benefit of Grosvenor’s expertise when he led a public tour of the campus in May during the preservation society’s What’s Out There Weekend, which highlighted some of Newport County’s most notable landscapes. (Photo courtesy of Newport This Week.)

Henry Large ’58 will be inducted into the St. Mark’s School Sports Hall of Fame on Friday, Oct. 2. Large spent 45 years teaching history and coaching football and baseball at St. Mark’s, in Southborough, Mass., before his retirement in 2010. The induction is part of the school’s 150th Anniversary Celebration.

Sid Richardson ’06 was one of just three composers chosen to have his work performed at the niefnorf Summer Festival this year at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. As an International Call for Scores Winner, Richardson’s composition “Astrolabe” (2014) for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion was performed at the festival on Saturday, June 13. Richardson, originally from Belmont, Mass., is a graduate student in the Department of Music at Duke University in Durham,

N.C. He also performs as a contrabassist in the Duke New Music Ensemble.

Veteran Bloomberg Television correspondent Peter C. Cook ’85 was named the Pentagon’s new press secretary this spring. The news was reported in a number of media outlets, including the Washington Post on June 19. “I want to thank Peter for taking on this challenging role, and for his commitment to helping the American people better understand the eforts of this Department and the people who work here, both in and out of uniform,” Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter told the Post. Most recently Cook was Bloomberg Television’s chief Washington correspondent.

Dr. BJ Miller ’89 and his formative work in the field of palliative care were featured prominently in an article in the April edition of California Sunday magazine. The article, “Death Redesigned” by Jon Mooallem, is subtitled, “A legendary design firm, a corporate executive and a Buddhist-hospice director take on the end of life.” Miller, who lost half his left arm and has two prosthetic legs from an accident while in college, is now the executive director of San Francisco’s Zen Hospice Project.

Will Rabbe ’00, now a producer on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” continued his run on the publicity circuit this spring after the December 2014 release of his documentary “Above the Fray,” which tells the story of the 1988 presidential election through the eyes of Michael Dukakis. “His ability to reflect and analyze what must have been a very dificult [campaign]— you don’t see that in most losing presidential candidates,” Rabbe says of Dukakis. “Usually they come up with some rationale that makes them feel better about why they lost.” What Dukakis

does in the documentary, Rabbe adds, is takes the responsibility. “He owns it and he says, ‘It was my fault.’ We did not counter the charges that were being leveled at us. I did not respond.” The Washington Post called Rabbe’s documentary “excellent.”

Athenaide Dallet ’79 took part in a number of author readings following the recent publication of her first novel, “The Absinthe Association” (Kent Hollow Press, 2015). The book, based on a true story, tells the tale of “a group of young college grads who distill absinthe for a lark, only to find that its popularity in the underground music scene of Boston and Providence propels them into danger.” Dallet, who earned her Ph.D. from Harvard, has been an English teacher at Kent School since 2006.

Carly Mey ’14 was featured on the front page in the sports section of the Newport Daily News in March and the accompanying photo pictured her in none other than the Cabot/Harman Ice Center. Mey, who finished her freshman year at Salve Regina University this spring, played hockey in all 25 games last season for the Seahawks, who have their home games at St. George’s.

Fred Taylor ’79, president of Northstar Investment Advisors in Denver, served as one of the expert sources for Money magazine’s March cover story titled, “7 Steps to Total Financial Fitness.” In the article about reviewing your money matters, Taylor advises us all to divide our expenses into “the essential costs of living, investments in your future (savings, education, a home) and the discretionary spending you have the flexibility to cut.” The exercise, Taylor suggests, will help you determine if you’re saving enough for your later years, and if not, what you can live without to help beef up your retirement account.

The CLASS NOTES section has been removed from this digital copy of the Bulletin to respect our alums’ privacy.

Class notes are only available in the print edition.

c.1905

Applied Mechanics Building

This photo is part of an exhibit curated by Archivist Val Simpson P’14 called “Once Upon a Time: A Few Hidden Chapters in SG History,” now viewable online at stgeorges.edu/archives. “The exhibit focuses on aspects of the school that are no longer readily apparent today,” Simpson explained. “It includes materials that tell the story of the gradual changes in location, facilities, programs, clubs, sports, events and traditions that help comprise the rich history of the school.” The Applied Mechanics Building—a wood and machine shop that contained different types of engines, a lathe, carpenter’s benches and an area where an old car was taken apart and completely reconstructed by the students—“opens up a new possibility of creativeness through the way of learning by doing,” wrote Headmaster Stephen P. Cabot in an article in the Oct. 11, 1924, Red & White. At the time, Cabot was reaching out to readers to help support the $3,500 cost of funding the building, which once stood in the area now occupied by the Nathaniel P. Hill Library. This upcoming school year, as our new Academic Center opens to classes, a “fablab” (fabrication laboratory) comes online in the Drury-Grosvenor Arts Center and a new interdisciplinary-focused curriculum evolves, creative thinking will continue be a focus at St. George’s.

Deep Cut

I have only had one haircut in a foreign country, and even though my parents were horrified by the results and I may have looked ridiculous for a few months, it was the best haircut I have ever received. It all started two years prior, when a middle school friend and his mother organized a service trip to South Africa and were kind enough to invite me along. On our first trip, we focused our eforts on helping an orphanage of 15 children and teaching high school students to use computers in rural Eastern Cape. Because my first trip was so amazing, I asked my parents if I could go again the next year. This second trip was exponentially more enjoyable, as I felt like I was returning to a second home. All the guys on my trip joked about getting haircuts in South Africa, but I never thought we would.

During our last week, we fnally decided to get our hair cut. We were in a rural area and there was only one barber in the town. This barber, like most in the country, used an old shipping container as his store. We walked up to the container and awkwardly waited our turn to enter. Communication was difcult with locals because we did not speak their native tongue, which is one of the most complex languages in the world. In this region of South Africa, Xhosa is the most common dialect, known for having words pronounced with clicks. Since speaking was difcult, random hand gestures became the most effective way to communicate. Soon fve white students became too hard to ignore and the barber invited us in. As we entered, the surroundings were overwhelming. A lawn chair served as the barber’s chair and Xhosa rap music blared from massive speakers. In the corner of the tiny container a television was playing a DVD of WWE’s most memorable moments. Being the only student not from my friend’s school I was unanimously chosen to go frst. I slowly walked to the rickety lawn chair and took a deep breath. The barber motioned to my head, implying what type of haircut I would like. I decided that I might have better luck describing a specifc person’s hair so I said “Neymar,” referring to the Brazilian soccer superstar. The barber recognized the name and began buzzing away. Within minutes a few dozen little kids piled into

the container to watch WWE and me get a haircut. Soon it seemed the whole village heard we were getting haircuts and the container was standing room only with a line out of the door just to take a look at my hair. The barber suddenly stopped and yelled in Xhosa at a little boy, who soon ran back with a pair of safety scissors that he had for school. The barber had never cut a white person’s hair so there was no reason to have scissors. The barber chuckled and continued. As my haircut neared completion, the barber’s look intensifed. He was holding a matchstick between his teeth. All of a sudden one of the little kids got up from watching TV and bumped the barber’s elbow, causing the razor to cut a streak through my hair. I looked at the barber and he looked at me. There was a tense moment when everyone in the container wondered what would happen next. Simultaneously, we both started hysterically laughing and he did his best to touch up my hair.

This experience did not change my life, but it is a special memory I will never forget. This moment showed me that two people, worlds apart in every way, could connect through laughter and share a moment of absolute hilarity. Although I walked around with a slightly off-centered Mohawk for a few weeks, I will never regret the story and experience of my haircut in the Eastern Cape.

STUDENT ESSAY BY BLAISE FOLEY ’15

Blaise Foley ’15 used this narrative as his college essay. He heads to Colby College in Waterville, Maine, this fall.

A FINAL LOOK AT

art class

While traditional art classes like printmaking and drawing will still be ofered at SG, two new interdisciplinary courses that incorporate art into the curriculum will also be available to students this year.

Art Department Chair Mike Hansel will team up with Science Department Chair Bob Wein for a course called Principles of Engineering and later in the year with math teacher Doug Lewis for Design Science. Each course will cater to various learning styles and emphasize finding creative solutions through a series of open-ended

challenges, according to Hansel. “They’ll allow students to pursue and use their strengths to solve problems, capitalizing on what they’re good at—and the way they think,” he said. And students won’t just propose solutions; they’ll build models and test them out. Students in the classes will likely move between the new Academic Center and the Drury-Grosvenor Arts Center, which houses the new FabLab along with metal-working tools, like a just-arrived CNC machine for computer-aided cutting.

An original play, written by two sixth-formers, honors the victims and survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda